Joseph Robert Dever, also known as Joe Dever (12 February 1956 – 29 November 2016) was an English fantasy author and game designer. Originally a musician, Dever became the first British winner of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Championship of America in 1982.
He first created the fictional world of Magnamund in 1977 as a setting for his Dungeons & Dragons campaigns. In 1984, he released the first book of the Lone Wolf series of young-adult gamebooks, and the series has since sold over 11.5 million copies worldwide (as of September 2014). He experienced difficulty with his publishers as the game books market began to contract in 1995, until publication ceased in 1998 before the final four books (numbers 29–32) were released. Since 2003, the series enjoyed a revival of interest, particularly in France, Italy, Germany, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Poland following the re-release of the gamebook series in these countries.
From 1996 onwards, Dever had been involved in the design and production of several successful computer and console games. He also contributed to Lone Wolf: The Roleplaying Game, a Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying game for Lone Wolf published by Mongoose Publishing (UK) from 2004 to 2013 and Le Grimoire (France) in 2006–2013. In 2013, he wrote the story and in-game text for the Joe Dever's Lone Wolf video game series specifically designed for tablets and smartphones. Entitled Lone Wolf: Blood on the Snow, it was developed by Forge Reply (Milan, Italy) and published by BulkyPix. In February 2014, it won two Golden Dragon Awards from the Italian Video Game Developer's Association of Italy (AESVI) for Best Game Design and Best Indie Game of the Year 2013. In April 2014, it was a finalist in the Develop Industry Excellence Awards. On 27 November 2014, it was released via Steam for PC's and Mac computers. On 11 January 2016, the developer Forge Reply announced that Joe Dever's Lone Wolf had achieved 2.5 million downloads since its release in November 2013.
At the time of his death, Dever was authoring supplements for the Lone Wolf Adventure Game with Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd., and writing the final books in the core Lone Wolf series. Following his death, his son Ben announced that his family would work to publish the remaining three books of the saga.
Biography
Dever was born in Chingford and educated at Buckhurst Hill County High School. In 1976, he joined the studio-based orchestra of a record company in London known as Pye Records which provided accompaniment to prominent solo singers and artists. After 18 months, the orchestra disbanded and Dever then freelanced for a year before joining Virgin Records as a recording engineer based at Manor Studios in Oxfordshire. Dever has two children, Ben (b. 1981) and Sophie (b. 1987).
Dever was a bass guitar player and attempted to get a record deal when playing with Essex-based band Seventh Seal. This led to him getting involved with John Lydon's band Public Image Ltd; Dever acted as the band's road manager and tour manager when it toured in Europe.
He was also an enthusiastic wargamer with an extensive collection of both 15mm and 25mm metal miniatures, of which he had painted the vast majority.
During June–August 2005, Dever underwent extensive surgery for bi-lateral kidney cancer, involving a partial nephrectomy of the right kidney, and a full nephrectomy of the left kidney. Seventy percent of his remaining kidney was saved. The surgical team was directed by J. L. Peters of Whipps Cross University Hospital in London. It proceeded without complications on 10 August 2005, and subsequently Dever made a swift recovery, having retained sufficient kidney function to lead a normal life without any need for dialysis.
In August 2016, Dever underwent a bile duct surgery which caused side effects. In late October, he announced his admission to hospital for a series of treatment to correct these complications. He died on 29 November 2016, following those complications.
Writings
Joe Dever was seven years old when he became a fan of the comic strip "The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire" which appeared in a magazine called Look and Learn. He also built up armies of Airfix Roman soldiers and converted their spears to laser rifles long before he was introduced to fantasy. Dever was first introduced to "science fantasy" in 1970 by his Grammar school English tutor. He was the first and perhaps only British person to compete in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Championship of America, which he won in 1982.